Symbols, Imagery, Wordplay
Form and Meter
Emily has tons of fun with meter in this poem. Well, "fun" might not be quite the best way to describe it since the poem describes the numbness that comes after horrible trauma, but bear with us.Th...
Speaker
The speaker is a woman of mystery. In fact, she's so mysterious that she never even tells us if she's a "she." We just call her "she" because saying "he or she" the whole time is mad clunky. Even t...
Setting
The poem never gives us a picture of a specific setting. Instead, we get a whole bunch of pictures of a whole bunch of settings. It's sort of like we're looking at the world through a broken kaleid...
Sound Check
Yeah, we've definitely got sound games in this one. The one we see the most of is probably alliteration, which is the repetition of consonant sounds at the beginning of words. The first line has a...
What's Up With the Title?
Title? What do you need with a title? This—like every Dickinson poem—is totally title free.
Calling Card
You'll find plenty of Emily's greatest hits in this poem. There is—as always—her use of creative capitalization. One of our favorite examples is where she capitalizes "Nerves" and "Heart." Here...
Tough-o-Meter
Disjointed images, funky meters, cryptic syntax? It's easy to get lost, but we'll be your GPS.
Trivia
Dickinson used to lower a basket full of gingerbread out of her window for the neighborhood kids. Question: would your mom have let you accept gingerbread from the weird lady that lived alone? (Sou...
Steaminess Rating
Our speaker is way too traumatized to think about sex.